American 

Missionary 

Problems 


By 

Joseph  E.McApee 


LAYMENS 

MISSIONARY  MOVEMENT 

1  MADISON  AVENUE  NEW  YORK 


AMERICAN 

MISSIONARY 

PROBLEMS 

By 

Joseph  E.  McAfee 


Laymen’s  Missionary  Movement 
1  Madison  Avenue 
New  York 


American  Missionary 
Problems 


There  are  two  possible  methods  of  treat¬ 
ment,  two  avenues  of  approach  to  American 
missionary  problems. 

1.  The  Extensive  Method. 

The  problems  may  be  treated  topically,  a 
general  dispassionate  survey  of  the  field  being 
conducted.  This  is  the  simplest  and  the 
easiest  method  of  treatment.  It  requires  an 
attitude  of  aloofness,  and  the  treatment  is 
therefore  more  or  less  academic.  To  gain  the 
bird’s-eye  view  the  bird  must  be  poised  aloft, 
and  aloof  from  the  scene  under  view. 

This  treatment  would  bring  out  the  follow¬ 
ing  particulars : 

I.  Immigration. — Fifteen  millions  of  alien 
people  to  be  absorbed  into  our  American  life ; 
until  the  European  war  broke  out  more  than 
one  million  more  coming  each  year.  A  uni¬ 
versal  city  problem ;  scarcely  less  generally  a 
rural  problem ;  and,  in  many  sections,  more 
difficult  even  in  the  country  than  in  the  city. 
A  large  Eastern  problem;  75  or  80%  of  the 
newcomers  make  their  first  settlement  in  the 
angle  formed  by  a  line  from  Minneapolis 
through  Kansas  City  to  Baltimore.  Yet  it  is 
a  startling  W estern  problem,  and  relatively 


greater  there  than  anywhere  else.  In  the 
seventeen  large  states  of  the  'Northwest  and 
the  far  West  13%  of  the  nation’s  population 
must  absorb  18%  of  the  newcomers. 

2.  Negroes. — Ten  millions  of  them.  While 
there  is  a  constant  stream  of  immigration 
from  the  South  to  Northern  cities,  yet  the  vast 
proportion  of  negroes  still  reside  in  the  South. 
The  relative  increase  in  such  cities  as  Wash¬ 
ington,  Philadelphia,  New  York  and  Newark 
is  very  great,  but  eight  or  nine  of  the  ten 
million  negroes  are  still  in  the  South. 

3.  The  zvhite  mountaineers  of  the  Central 
South. — The  inhabitants  of  the  rugged  terri¬ 
tory  extending  from  the  Atlantic  seaboard 
westward  to  Missouri.  Five  millions  of  pure- 
blood  Americans,  in  many  sections  very  back¬ 
ward  in  civilization,  but  a  stock  which,  under 
proper  training,  has  shown  the  finest  traits  of 
American  character. 

4.  The  Spanish  or  Mexican-American  of  the 
Southwest. — A  few  years  ago  there  were 
scarcely  more  than  four  hundred  thousand. 
It  is  now  safely  estimated  that  a  million  Span¬ 
ish-speaking  people  are  in  Continental  United 
States.  Disturbances  in  Mexico  have  precipi¬ 
tated  large  emigration  from  that  unhappy  re¬ 
public.  The  problem  is  overwhelming  the 
spiritual  forces  in  southern  California;  Texas 
is  said  to  have  four  hundred  thousand  IMex- 
icans. 


[4] 


5.  Indians. — Three  hundred  and  twenty-five 
thousand,  and  on  the  increase.  A  very  com¬ 
plicated  problem,  requiring  in  some  sections 
attempts  at  the  immediate  incorporation  of  this 
element  into  American  life,  and  elsewhere 
compelling  the  Church  to  put  missionaries  in 
the  field  who  will  learn  the  native  language. 
In  the  latter  case  it  is  estimated  that  the 
present  and  perhaps  the  next  generation  can 
be  reached  through  the  pagan  vernacular  alone. 

6.  Mormonism. — A  pronounced  political 
menace,  perhaps  even  more  serious  than  a 
moral.  The  Mormon  hierarchy  absolutely 
dominates  the  politics  of  one  State,  holds  the 
balance  of  power  in  two  others,  and  is  rapidly 
increasing  its  industrial  and  political  influence 
in  seven  others. 

7.  The  far-dung  frontiers. — They  are  to-day 
flung  farther  than  ever.  Irrigation  and  dry¬ 
farming  systems  are  the  magic  by  which  “The 
Great  American  Desert”  is  to  become  “The 
Garden  of  the  Lord.”  Rural  regions  west  of 
the  Missouri  River  are  almost  entirely  neg¬ 
lected  by  the  Church.  Only  towns  have  been 
reached  with  any  effectiveness.  The  country 
church,  familiar  to  the  Eastern  civilization,  is 
almost  unknown  in  the  West.  Individuals  and 
families  in  certain  sections  grow  to  mature 
life  having  never  heard  a  sermon  or  been 
otherwise  touched  by  organized  religious  in¬ 
fluences. 

8.  Lumber  and  mining  camps. — The  conven¬ 
tional  church  almost  invariably  perishes  or  re- 


treats  before  a  coal-mining  population,  though 
family  life  is  generally  maintained  in  such 
communities.  More  than  a  million  souls  are 
involved.  In  the  lumber  camps,  where  at  least 
two  or  three  hundred  thousand  men  live  with¬ 
out  family  ties,  conventional  church  methods 
do  not  apply.  A  special  kind  of  evangelism 
is  necessary  to  meet  spiritual  needs. 

9.  Alaska. — Our  last  great  frontier;  a  con¬ 
tinent  of  itself.  Five  hundred  and  ninety 
thousand  square  miles  of  uncalculated  and  in¬ 
calculable  wealth  just  ready  for  exploitation. 
Government  projects  soon  to  open  the  gates 
to  the  inrush  of  a  stable,  self-sufficing  popula¬ 
tion. 

10.  The  Islands. — Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  fur¬ 
nishing  a  key  to  the  difficult  Latin-American 
problems ;  American  civilization  there  on  trial 
where  its  success  or  failure  will  vindicate  or 
condemn  the  Monroe  Doctrine;  Hawaii  and 
the  Philippines  presenting  each  its  peculiar 
race  problem  of  the  most  serious  import. 

11.  The  City. — Everywhere.  The  growth  of 
cities  is  the  outstanding  phenomenon  of  our 
civilization.  None  of  our  methods  of  organi¬ 
zation  are  keeping  pace,  neither  those  of  the 
Church  nor  those  of  the  civic  order.  Almost 
half  the  population  is  already  urban,  and 
the  proportion  is  increasing  astonishingly. 
This  movement  is  inevitable  and  irresistible. 
We  must  make  up  our  minds  to  the  city  as 
the  dominant  force  in  our  life,  and  lay  our 


[6] 


plans  accordingly.  Yet  the  Church  is  almost 
universally  retreating  before  the  city’s  worst 
and  most  characteristic  development.  It 
deliberately  withdraws  from  the  hard  tasks  in 
the  city  and  seeks  the  easy  places  where  its 
conventional  methods  apply  with  the  least  in¬ 
convenience.  The  all  but  universal  trend  of 
churches  is  up-town  while  the  population  is 
ever  more  closely  packed  in  down-town. 

12.  The  Country. — Everywhere  also.  Rural 
revival  is  the  concern  of  the  church  and  every 
other  institution  of  society.  One  whole  state, 
our  most  agricultural  state,  lost  population 
during  the  last  census  decade.  The  large  ma¬ 
jority  of  rural  counties  in  all  the  older  states 
lost  population.  In  some  of  the  great  agricul¬ 
tural  Middle  Western  states  35%  of  the  farms 
are  already  operated  by  tenants.  The  tenant 
is  a  poor  citizen,  taking  little  interest  in  the 
support  of  churches,  schools  or  other  social 
institutions.  Thirty-five  hundred  of  the  10,000 
Northern  Presbyterian  churches  stand  with 
closed  doors  on  a  given  Sunday  for  the  lack 
of  leaders  and  support.  The  Methodists  and 
Baptists  of  the  South  declare  that  16,000  of 
their  churches  in  that  section  alone  stand  thus 
closed  on  a  given  Sunday.  Yet  all  agree  that 
the  country  church  holds  the  key  to  the  rural 
situation  and  must  logically  assume  the  leader¬ 
ship  in  an  effective  country  life  revival. 

The  above  method  of  presenting  home  mis¬ 
sions  is  cyclopedic.  For  that  reason  it  is  in 


danger  of  sacrificing  the  spirit  and  enthusiasm 
which  home  missions  should  contribute  to  the 
missionary  campaign.  The  very  attitude  of 
detachment  may  be  destructive  to  vital  home 
mission  spirit.  By  this  treatment  home  mis¬ 
sions  may  become  only  a  miniature  of  foreign 
missions,  which  is  of  larger  territorial  dimen¬ 
sions,  and,  in  the  final  analysis,  even  more 
complicated.  Home  missions  should  make  a 
distinct  contribution.  This  can  best  be  done 
by  another  method. 

II.  The  Intensive  Method. 

There  is  another  method  of  dealing  with 
home  missionary  problems  much  more  effec¬ 
tive  than  the  extensive  method. 

IMMEDI.\CY  AND  ATTACHMENT. 

I.  It  involves  the  principle  of  immediacy 
and  assumes  the  attitude  of  attachment.  Home 
missions  should  be  brought  close  home  to  find 
its  deepest  spring  and  cultivate  its  largest 
inspiration. 

Home  missions  should  impress  each  church 
with  its  immediate  responsibility  and  cultivate 
a  primal  enthusiasm  for  the  work  within  arms’ 
reach.  Thus  each  church  should  find  its  ful¬ 
crum  for  the  wider  outreach ;  discover  here 
the  sine  qua  non  of  effective  world  endeavor. 
For  example. 

Immigration  is  of  the  greatest  concern.  The 
appeal  should  not  exhaust  itself  in  declamation 
of  figures  drawn  from  the  Immigration  Com- 


tS] 


missioner’s  Report  in  Washington,  nor  lay  the 
weight  of  its  argument  upon  the  vast  and 
rapid  additions  to  New  York  City’s  popula¬ 
tion.  The  immediate  concern  is  the  group  of 
one  hundred  and  fifty  families  which  con¬ 
stitute  the  “Little  Italy”  of  the  city  in  which 
the  given  church  is  located ;  the  colony  of 
Slavs  forming  in  another  center ;  the  Ghetto 
which  is  gradually  encroaching  upon  the  field 
of  a  conservative  old  church  down-town  in  that 
very  city.  It  will  be  nothing  short  of  a  reve¬ 
lation  to  many  a  layman  to  find  that  his  small 
city  has  an  immigration  problem  of  its  own. 
Our  first  and  most  important  duty  should  be 
to  quicken  in  such  the  sense  of  immediate  re¬ 
sponsibility. 

The  negro  should  not  be  treated  as  an 
academic  question.  The  historian  cannot  meet 
to-day’s  issue.  There  should  be  the  freest 
admission  of  mistakes  and  prejudice  on  either 
or  both  sides  of  the  line  in  the  past.  But 
the  past  is  past.  The  issue  of  the  present 
should  be  made  clear.  The  negro,  especially 
in  Southern  communities,  has  spiritual  needs 
which  it  is  the  obligation  of  the  Church  to 
meet.  Forces  and  money  outside  of  the  com¬ 
munity  may  help,  but  the  real  understanding 
of  the  problem  and  the  real  ministry  which 
shall  meet  the  problem  must  be  locally  gen¬ 
erated  and  locally  applied.  The  South  must 
therefore  be  depended  upon  to  carry  the  home 
mission  burden  of  the  negro.  The  sympathetic 
help  of  the  North  may  be  depended  upon,  and 


[0] 


all  will  pray  for  such  wisdom  as  shall  no 
longer  justify  criticism  of  ill-advised  measures 
imposed  upon  local  communities  from  outside 
of  them  and  antagonistic  to  their  sentiments, 
but  the  South  must  lead  and  assume  the  re¬ 
sponsibility  which  it  often  criticizes  others, 
who  are  less  qualified,  for  assuming. 

The  city  problem  is  much  to  the  fore  and 
should  not  be  less  intimately  treated.  New 
York  is  very  valuable  for  illustration,  but  New 
York  has  no  monopoly  upon  the  city  problem. 
“The  American  City”  is  not  the  problem  of 
immediate  concern,  but  the  moral  and  spirit¬ 
ual  conditions  of  this  particular  American  city 
in  which  the  appeal  is  presented.  Each  church 
in  its  attack  upon  the  city  problem  is  con¬ 
cerned,  first  of  all,  with  its  own  city,  with  the 
capacity  of  the  church  to  correct  slum  con¬ 
ditions  prevailing  upon  A  and  B  streets. 

This  first  and  primal  home  mission  enthusi¬ 
asm  can  in  each  case  be  shown  only  upon 
problems  within  immediate  reach,  and  the 
home  mission  appeal  should  emphasize  this 
fact  supremely. 

THE  UNITY  OF  NATIONAL  LIFE. 

2.  The  same  principle  emphasizes  the  so¬ 
lidarity  of  national  welfare.  Each  local  con¬ 
dition  articulates  with  and  merges  into  a 
national ;  but,  with  the  wider  range,  the  atti¬ 
tude  of  attachment  should  never  be  lost.  Home 
missions  is  to  be  interpreted  as  a  national 


issue.  For  the  individual  the  community  re¬ 
mains  the  fulcrum  from  which  the  national 
life  is  lifted.  Thus  patriotism  becomes  a  more 
intelligible  reality  and  a  more  vital  force. 

The  American  people  are  bound  in  one  bun¬ 
dle.  Both  the  economic  and  the  spiritual 
prosperity  of  each  community  are  indissolubly 
locked  with  that  of  every  other.  The  bonds 
of  communication,  railways,  telegraphs,  tele¬ 
phones,  the  speeding  of  automobile  and  aero¬ 
plane  serve  the  more  effectively  every  year  to 
bind  all  the  people  into  one  national  life. 

Thus  the  attitude  of  attachment  is  glorified, 
and  home  missions  become  as  important  and 
large  as  the  destiny  and  mission  of  the  nation. 

AMERICA'’s  WORLD  MISSION. 

3.  So  the  principle  has  a  still  wider  applica¬ 
tion.  There  is  a  national  world  mission  be¬ 
coming  ever  more  clear  and  pronounced.  The 
national  life  furnishes  the  fulcrum  for  world 
evangelization.  In  this  outreach  the  attitude 
of  attachment  should  be  fully  preserved. 

This  opens  the  way  for  a  genuine  world 
ministry  vitally  different  in  method,  and,  in 
some  elements,  in  its  spirit,  from  foreign  mis¬ 
sions.  It  is  not  less  altruistic  in  its  enthusi¬ 
asm  but  more  scientifically  democratic  in 
method. 

“The  Man  Without  a  Country”  cannot,  in  a 
real  sense,  be  a  world  citizen.  The  most  po¬ 
tent  influences  we  exert  in  shaping  world  des- 


[11] 


tiny  are  expressed  in  our  national  impacts 
upon  the  life  of  the  world.  These  forces  are 
already  dominant,  and  are  destined  to  in¬ 
crease.  We  make  or  mar  our  evangelical 
program  by  political,  commercial  and  indus¬ 
trial  contacts  of  our  nation  with  the  peoples 
of  the  earth. 

This  contrast  in  method  with  foreign  mis¬ 
sions  should  not  be  blurred.  There  is  no 
necessity  for  conflict  either  in  reality  or  in 
appearance.  The  two  attitudes  are  radically 
dit¥erent;  some  will  naturally  emphasize  one, 
and  some  the  other,  just  as  some  are  tempera¬ 
mentally  individualists  and  others’  activity  is 
always  prompted  by  the  social  passion. 

The  distinction  between  home  and  foreign 
missions  is  therefore  not  one  of  territorial 
limitations.  Home  missions  is  not  merely  a 
local  enterprise  while  foreign  missions  is  a 
world  mission.  Rightly  conceived,  home  mis¬ 
sions  is  no  less  world-forming  than  foreign 
missions.  They  approach  a  common  problem 
from  a  different  attitude  and  with  a  different 
method.  While  the  contrast  both  of  attitude 
and  method  is  pronounced,  the  end  sought  by 
all  sincere  spirits  is  finally  the  same. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  even  the  philosophy 
of  this  interpretation  of  home  missions  has 
been  fully  worked  out.  Advocates  of  home 
missions  themselves  often  either  do  not  accept 
it  or  do  not  comprehend  it,  and  practise  is 
even  more  backward.  But  the  principle  is 


[12] 


vital,  and  home  mission  speakers  should  clari¬ 
fy  their  own  conception,  and  seek  with  insight 
and  passion  to  set  the  idea  clearly  forth. 

III.  Money  and  Home  Missions 

Two  methods  of  treating  the  money  ques¬ 
tion  should  be  followed  by  home  mission  ad¬ 
vocates. 

I.  Home  mission  agencies  need  cash  to  sup¬ 
port  their  enterprise. 

j  The  local  churches  need  support.  The  na- 
^  tional  boards  of  home  missions  need  more 

!  money.  Each  agency  is  cramped  in  many  of 

j  its  activities.  The  appeal  for  money  should  be 
unequivocal. 

I 

i  The  basis  of  the  appeal  should  be  kept  clear. 
It  is  not  one  of  stark  need.  Pointing  out  the 
moral  and  spiritual  obliquities  in  our  social 
order  does  not  necessarily  argue  for  church 
contributions.  The  rough-and-ready  layman 
will  discover  a  non  seqnitur  in  the  argument, 
''The  slums  of  our  city  are  bad ;  therefore 
give  money  to  the  churches.”  Such  argument 
will  be  effective  only  on  condition  that  the 
churches  are  clearly  understood  to  be  putting 
in  play  forces  to  correct  slum  conditions.  In 
other  words,  efficiency  in  home  mission  ad¬ 
ministration  can  be  the  only  convincing  argu¬ 
ment  in  the  appeal  for  money. 

Any  thoughtful  student  knows  that  the  na¬ 
tional  boards  are  latterly  showing  marked  in¬ 
crease  in  their  efficiency.  Ever}^  one  of  them 


is  so  far  ahead  of  its  constituency  in  progres¬ 
sive  measures  as  to  be  in  danger  of  the  forces 
of  reaction.  Every  one  of  them  is  seeking 
even  beyond  the  present  determination  of  its 
constituency  to  correct  the  evils  of  over¬ 
churching  and  of  wastefulness  in  duplicating 
religious  agencies.  The  spirit  of  unity  and 
efficiency  is  aflame  in  the  national  boards.  The 
great  need  now  is  backing  from  the  rank  and 
file  in  the  churches. 

2.  Another,  and,  in  some  respects,  a  more 
important  attitude  for  home  missions  is  that 
of  demand  for  the  consecration  of  American 
money  for  social  and  industrial  justice.  The 
Church  is  everywhere  embarrassed  by  the 
charge  of  profiting  financially  from  unjust 
economic  conditions.  Home  missions  is  out 
to  preach  the  spiritualization  of  the  social  and 
economic  order;  the  establishment  in  society 
of  the  principles  of  brotherhood  for  which 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  gave  his  life.  The  home 
mission  appeal  should,  in  every  city,  make 
searching  and  sympathetic  inquiry  into  the 
Church’s  immediate  responsibility  for  indus¬ 
trial  conditions. 

As  intimated,  this  attitude  should  be  deeply 
sympathetic.  It  is  unjust  invidiously  to  point 
out  any  individual  and  lay  upon  him  the  re¬ 
sponsibility  for  our  distorted  industrial  order. 
No  individual  can,  single-handed,  correct 
these  conditions.  Some  will  be  compelled  to 
labor  under  them  during  the  remainder  of 


[14] 


their  lives,  but  every  sincere  churchman 
should  be  an  open  rebel  against  industrial  in¬ 
justice  whether  he  be  an  exalted  captain  of 
industry  or  the  humblest  laborer  in  mill  or 
factory.  The  solution  of  these  problems  can 
be  gained  only  by  the  completest  unity  of  de¬ 
sire  and  effort.  The  Church  should  suppress 
class  antagonisms  by  bringing  all  men  of  every 
grade  of  society  into  fundamental  Christian 
relations  of  brotherhood. 


[15] 


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LITMEN’t  ■ISSiONART  MOVEMENT 
1  Midlien  An,,  Niw  York 


